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Good times for Pennsylvania wines? All in all, the answer is yes

The Winery At Wilcox

The winery opened its doors in the summer of 1994, with an inventory of 1100 gallons in eight varieties. Its tiny tasting bar accommodated five people. Twelve years and six additions later the Winery at Wilcox now has a capacity of nearly 60,000 gallons, with over 30 wines for the 2011 vintage.
(www.winetrailtraveler.com)

Over the past couple years it has seen its festival days expanded, its ability to discount its product granted and its relationship with the PLCB improved through the development of the PA Preferred program last January. Ahead in mid-April is the announcement of a new statewide branding campaign under the direction of Matthew Vlahos Public Relations in Philadelphia.

“It feels like for the last while here we seem to have positioned ourselves pretty well," Williams said recently by phone. He's vice president of his family's business, The Winery At Wilcox, located in Elk County. "I think for awhile, sometimes liquor-related things, it was not popular for [legislators] to come out in favor of in the past. I think some of those things are changing and I think a lot of the work that we do, it's unfortunate it can't be as publicized, is playing defense. 'OK, this is not good for the industry' or specifically 'this is something that we can't support.'

"It's also a little bit difficult for us because we have such a breadth of wineries in size and in business models. Lots of wineries have beautiful showplaces and they are able to do events, and then a winery like myself, we're a little more driven towards, we're actually in the LCB system. We sell quite a bit of wine to them. So it's hard to make a decision for the industry on the whole on some of those issues. We just try to do the best we can to serve the most."

The "10 in 10" program seemed to offer the most encouraging sign of a thaw between the state agency and the state's wineries. Announced during the Farm Show in 2013, it enables state wineries to pick 10 of its products and put them in the 10 state stores of their choice. Many winery owners I've talked to have applauded the opportunity.

That leaves the two biggest issues that no one can oredict: When will shipping be expanded and will the state ever privatize. In both cases, the PWA can advise and endorse, but won't have a say in what the state decides.

Shipping was part of a proposal floated Thursday by state Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bucks County, essentially a plan that would modernize the PLCB rather than eliminate it. As PennLive.com's Capitol reporter Jeff Frantz noted in a story a couple weeks ago, getting any sort of compromise is difficult because both sides are so entrenched. DiGirolamo's proposal would "allow Pennsylvanians to receive direct shipments of wine and spirits at their homes, and allow the LCB to ship out of state."

Last year's push for shipping, something Mazza's Vineyard's Bob Mazza talked about during the summer, wound up getting tied to privatization and never got beyond the proposal stage. Williams acknowledged that while the PWA is hopeful that becomes a separate issue, the reality suggests otherwise.

"That [link with privatization] seems to be the way it's going right now," Williams said.

"Parts of the GOP want to discuss this or come to a head on privatization. Some of the other liquor issues are, for lack of a better term, held hostage. Shipping is, in my opinion, is one of the most important if not THE most important legislation that we . . . it needs to be cleaned up and fixed. It's going on eight, nine years now."

Williams also offered one anecdote on privatization, since his parents opened a winery in Ohio 12 years ago. "In dealing with distributors out there -- we have gone to
full distribution out there as well -- the LCB is a lot easier to work with than
the distributors are," he said. "I will say that. Quite a bit. We thought it was
a 'OK, here's our product, go sell it, for us,' but we we found we're out there
selling it more often, having difficulties getting this guy to buy into it or
that guy buy into it. It is a lot of a more complex situation, that's for sure.

"Now, one of the things that I think prior to the PA Preferred program coming
out was that some people were disappointed; they wanted to get their wines into the system and
it's not terribly easy to do. I think the PA Preferred program hopefully is
a step toward that, having more accessibility for more wineries to get their product to the market, but at
the same time you still have to be willing to take the discount. And, quite frankly, I
don't think they realize that discount is almost exactly the same that you're
going to get with a distributor.

"It is a large system to overhaul," he concluded. "There's going to be winners and losers, no matter what. Let's hope for the most winners."